[Savage Worlds] My hack job

[forlorn1]

In an effort to make SW better, and a bit more player narrated, I hacked up both Aspects from SotC and PTA's fan mail.  The result was 3 games I ran at MACE 2006, all of which went well IMHO.  So here is what I did.  I'd love to hear what folks think about.  My guess is that it would make a nice gateway for a GM to get his SW/Task res system players a bit more into the narrative mindset... (not that I have any hidden agenda about converting folks over to more indie games... :)

SW has bennies.  Normally each player gets three at the start of the session.  And normally they are only good for 2 things : a reroll and a roll to soak damage.

For my game I gave each player 5, and put another stack of 10 in the center of the table.  Then I explained that they could ALSO be spent to
- gain a +1 bonus by tagging an aspect of a scene (SotC)
- narrate a small plot point or add something small to a scene (more akin to Unisystems Drama points than anything else)
- for fan mail to reward other players for cool stuff, hence the pile in the middle of the table (thanks be to the genius of PTA)
When a benny is spent it goes back into the pool at the center of the table.  There is no implicit economy that removes bennies from play as the game continues.  I'm not sure if that's broken or OK, but it worked for me.

SW really doesn't have character aspects beyond Hindrances and Edges which are pretty limited, so I really didn't have much a GM can compell and  use to pay the players bennies for.  But the fan mail lets them pay each other without diminishing their own benny pool.

I ran three games, each cinematic in style.  The first two were based on the TV series Brisco County Jr.  The last was a 1930s pulp game I improved as part of the GM Improv contest.  Each went very well, and I think the players I got liked the mix.  The game system wasn't a prominent concern with any of the players (each said they signed up for the theme) and about half didn't know the SW rules, but knew it was task based.

Comments? critiques? flaming monkeys of death shot from orbit?

Jeff

[Simon C]

Make Savage Worlds better? Heathen!

Seriously though, when I started reading that I cringed, because SW has a very subtle interplay between rules,　and attempts to mess with the core mechanic are notoriously disastrous.  A seemingly small change has far-reaching implications.  On the other hand, bennies, as you have shown, are ripe for tweaking.  Storn, who posts here as well as the SW forum, has also made some changes to how bennies work, and I've just started playing with this idea.  I'm interested in some specific instances of how your changs played out, and a more detailed description of your changes.  What is "tagging"?

Currently, I allow Bennies to be spent to narrate small instances of chance in a game.  For example "No one looks up to see me fly in silently through the window" - from a recent game.  I'm thinking about giving them more powerful effects though, and, as you have, increasing the number in the game.  As it stands, the mechanic for "earning" in game bennies is pretty vague, and that can definitely change.  Another thing I'm thinking about is changing experience points.

Currently, you earn experience points for unspent bennies, and for "surviving" the session.  This could clearly be bent towards rewarding character development, or encouraging players to adress thematic issues, or whatever floats your boat.  Personally, I don't like this kind of experience points system, but then I've never played in a game that did it well.  I think you could clearly port in "Keys", or some other similar system, and use bennies as a reward for hitting them.  THoughts?

[Storn]

As I have just come off of two Spirit of the Century sessions in the last couple of weeks, and like Simon said, have a boat load of experiene with Savage Worlds, I've got opinions on this.  And I've logged a season of PTA as well.

Absolutely swipe from SotC.  If I was to run SW, I would do it in a heartbeat.  I love Aspects.

What I was doing was swiping from Burning Wheel, by subsitituting Beliefs and instincts to not only get some better "flags" from players, but to help give out Bennies.  My problem is as the GM, I always forgot.  So, anything that lets the players remind each other?!?!?  Awesome.  PTA's fan mail idea (and btw, Mutants and Masterminds allows for Hero points to be passed out by the Players as well as the GM) is a great mechanic for this.

Simon, Aspects work like this.  One starts with 10 Fate pts in SotC per session.  Aspects can be positive, negative or both.  Like my Hadrian Helm character has Tenacious/Reed Richards Syndrome.  He chews on a problem til he solves it.  Hey!  Great when the Tyrian Jet Pack was shot full of holes and on a deserted island, trying to fix it with bamboo.... and I can "tag" it myself.  Spend a Fate pt, get a bonus (or reroll if I rolled crappy).

But the GM can bribe me with something like "You are absorbed in your work, Princess Alura desperately tries to get your attention as it is dinner time and you have a date.  She stomps out of the lab and goes to the Cotton Club herself.  Couple hour later, you notice, realize and rush to the club.  She never arrived, according to the doorman.  She is missing.".  Now i have the opportunity to say "no" and PAY a Fate point to avoid the missing Princess Alura plot.  But most of the time, ya want the bribe because you know the GM is gonna screw ya and its gonna be fun!

I think this doesn't upset the balance of Bennies and SW one whit.  The GM, after all, can always set the opposition at any level she wants.  They've got the most arrows in the quiver.  Anything that gives Players more control at the table, I'm all for.  Speaking primarily as a GM.

As far as the removal economy that PTA has built in... I dunno.  If it is working for you, forlorn, as is... I'm not sure what to suggest.  One thing a friend of mine did with a similar mechanic to 1st ed Deadlands (appropo as SW is based off Deadlands) is to have different color chits.  For the sake of this covnversation, they all did neat things.  But Black chits, when spent, allowed the GM to draw a chit for her NPCs.  Black chits were useful in the game, they did neat things in our Champions game, like take away a die, allowing for Criticals and such.  But spending them?  You knew you were putting a resource back into the GM's hands.  I always liked that meta-mechanic face-scrunching thing that happened at the table with such a mechanic. 

Keep us/me posted.  I'm curious to hear how it goes.

[forlorn1]

Currently, you earn experience points for unspent bennies, and for "surviving" the session.

Bennies for experience points would most likely be broken by the changes I used.  Final boss fights tend to see the bennies fly hot an heavy, but also players doing cool stuff all over the place.  Especially in the more cinematic genres.  I could easily see one player walking out of a session with a ton of bennies to roll over to experience because the dice went his way, and another player who missed some key rolls with none.  My gut says that either XP awards should reflect participation, or they should be flat so all the characters remain peers.  Luckily its not an issue in con games...

As for the different color bennies, it doesn't feel right for me.  My group has played Deadlands Classic and Reloaded, and it just seemed to make things extra complicated.  Different colors also seems to me to rely heavily on their being a scarcity of bennies.  Yes I did enjoy the face schrunching at having to use an "uber" benny because that was all the player had left.  But I want there to be an abundance of "earnable" bennies, and make the players work to get em.

Jeff